Waiter who helped man with no hands: 'All are equal'

DOUGLASVILLE, Ga. -- A special moment between a Douglasville waiter and a man with no hands to feed himself has impacted the hearts of thousands on the web after a patron captured the moment on a phone.

The photo was taken one weekend at a Mexican restaurant in Douglasville and shows a waiter sitting with and helping a customer with no hands.

Now, the photo has been shared on Facebook across the world.

Alex Arroyo-Ruiz never meant for the moment to go viral. He doesn’t speak much English and spends most of his days at Cinco de Mayo – a Mexican restaurant 30 miles west of Atlanta.

But when a photo of him helping the man was captured and shared on Facebook, it would soon spread much further than the table he was waiting on.

“My action was not much,” he said. “It was something simple more people can do.”

But he didn’t have to. When he saw one of his customers had no hands, he chose to sit and help.

“He came over, talked to the guy and started cutting up his tacos so the guy could eat them,” coworker Amanda Betancourt said.

While his co-workers offered to pick up his other tables, Arroyo-Ruiz stayed with the man throughout his meal. They learned of each other’s families.

And at the end, you can see the man say, “Thank you very much.”

It was a fellow customer who took the photo that has been shared thousands of times.

But Arroyo-Ruiz never meant to go viral. He wished to reach an audience of one.

But if this kind of action has reached the world, he hopes the world sees the message behind it.

“Yo no discrimino la gente,” he said. “Para mi, todos son iguales.”

Arroyo-Ruiz said he doesn’t discriminate against anyone. For him, all are equal.